American Idol contestant scheduled to perform in Flippin

FLIPPIN — Season 9 American Idol contestant Dave Pittman, who’s working on a faith-based album, is among three entertainers (Mike Coates and 9N), who are scheduled to perform Saturday at the inaugural Flippin Fling.

Pittman, of Nashville, is from the Twin Lakes Area. The 35-year-old told The Bulletin Wednesday morning people can expect to hear some of his old tunes from his album “Crazy Brave,” including some new tunes from the album he’s currently working on.

This is not the first time he’s performing in the area.

“I call the Twin Lakes Area my home, and it’s always nice to come home and play for my hometown people,” he said.

Organized by ABC’s & 123’s, a nonprofit that provides clothes to students, Flippin Fling 2017 is a free event, where 100 percent of the proceeds will go toward the nonprofit.

Pittman will be selling T-shirts and CDs at Saturday’s event. For every T-shirt sold, $10 will go toward ABC’s & 123’s.

Rich Perry, a board member for ABC’s & 123’s, said the nonprofit has hosted car shows in the past few years. Organizers planned Flippin Fling 2017 to raise money and awareness for the nonprofit.

“This year we decided to step it up some and create a little larger event to draw more people,” he said.

ABC’s & 123’s has a thrift store on Main Street in Flippin and is solely run by volunteers. All the items for the store, either to resell or to use as donations to help children and families, are donated by the public. ABC’s & 123’s also assists children with clothing, shoes and other items they might need.

The nonprofit doesn’t strictly cover a specific area. It helps where the need arises. A new program was added this year to provide prom dresses and prom clothing for high school students who want to go to prom and might not have the means to rent or buy the clothing.

Although admission is free, patrons will have to pay to participate in the activities. For more information, call ABC's & 123's board member Cristin Jackson at 405-8724.

Saturday’s event will boast a full day of entertainment, which consists of the second annual Flippin out Fun Run Obstacle Course that will start at 7:30 a.m. It’s sponsored by the Parent Advisory Committee, a group that is run by parents who have children attending Flippin Public Schools.

Sponsored by Anstaff Bank, a rag ball tournament is scheduled for 9 a.m. The ABC’s & 123’s car show, which is sponsored by Ultimate Auto Group, will start at 10.

Submitted File(Photo: Submitted File)

Flippin's Police Department is also sponsoring an event, a three-on-three basketball tournament, starting at 10.

All events will be held at Hickey Park in Flippin. There will be food, craft and business vendors and 50/50 drawings — live music will start at 3:30 p.m.

How did ABC’s & 123’s start?

Some of the people who were involved with the nonprofit when it first started were active with the schools. One of the board members is a retired employee of the school. So they always see the need, Perry said, to help children.

“A way that they thought they could help the kids was to be able to provide clothing, shoes, personal items (and) school supplies for the kids in need,” he said. “So that’s where this came from. In order to fund that and do that, they opened the thrift store.”

To donate to ABC’s & 123’s, call 453-4000. It accepts money or goods for the store, such as clothing and houseware items. It accepts pretty much anything, except for TVs and computers.

Perry said he hasn’t put together a monetary goal on what he wants Saturday’s event to reach.

“We haven’t exactly set a goal because normally we do a car show — and this just started about two to three months ago putting this together,” he said of Saturday’s event.

The goal this year is to raise awareness about what the nonprofit does and the people that it benefits.

“I expect a lot of people …. It looks like we’re going to have a good crowd. I hate to say a number because, at this point, we’re curious what that number is gonna be,” Perry said.